Carrier route record

ASAUS→SFO

Alaska Airlines · Austin to San Francisco

Flights: 344
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 12%
Carriers: 5

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska on AUS to SFO lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 344 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 1,655 at 78.8% on time.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Alaska on AUS to SFO from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

78.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 339 completed flights

Avg delay

60 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.16%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

74.9%

Every carrier on AUS to SFO, 2,795 flights

These figures cover 344 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 6 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.

Carrier by carrier

Alaska against every carrier on AUS to SFO

Alaska flew 344 of the 2,795 flights on AUS to SFO, about 12% of it. Its 78.8% on time is 4 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 78.8% to Southwest at 62.6%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 78.8% of the time; Delta Air Lines manages 66.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 444 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on AUS to SFO
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	1,655	78.8%	74 min	0.79%	B+
Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample	344	78.8%	60 min	1.16%	B
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	8	75.0%	17 min	0.00%	B+
Delta Air Lines	444	66.7%	59 min	1.13%	C
Southwest Airlinesthin sample	344	62.6%	51 min	0.58%	D+

The spread between United and Delta is 12 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 12 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Departure window

When Alaska runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am96 flights91.6%
8am–11am42 flights92.7%
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm157 flights70.7%
5pm–8pm—
8pm–5am49 flights67.4%

Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 92.7% of the time, against 67.4% for the overnight window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 157 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Alaska on AUS to SFO through the year

Jul–Sep 2025165 flights74.1%
Oct–Dec 2025168 flights84.9%
Jan–Mar 202611 flights—

Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 78.8% on time across 344 flights.

Split by quarter, Alaska on AUS to SFO logged 165 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 168 flights in Oct–Dec 2025 and 11 flights in Jan–Mar 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 78.8% annual figure is the one to use.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 89.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.7%. 17 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Alaska runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 61% of the 4,293 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Late-arriving aircraft
61%
National Airspace System
19%
Carrier
17%
Security
3%
Extreme weather
1%

61% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 4,293 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 61 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 4,293 reported delay minutes.

The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 92.7% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.16% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

6.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 1,504 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 84.9% on time across 343 flights, 6 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 6 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 344 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.

What to do with this

Booking Alaska on AUS to SFO

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 344 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 78.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 339 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures